Toon worsen Palace woe

Newcastle restored their three-point lead at the top of the Coca-Cola Championship as the Magpies ground out a 2-0 victory over crisis club Crystal Palace.

Shaun Derry's put through his own net with 20 minutes gone to gift the hosts the lead but the Magpies struggled to build on their advantage and had to wait until four minutes into injury time for substitute Nile Ranger to cement the win.

After a bright opening, Palace were unlucky to fall behind, Derry guiding Andy Carroll's header past his own keeper to hand the home side the lead.

The Eagles failed to make the most of several excellent opportunities, Nick Carle wasting their best opportunity.

And Ranger made sure deep into stoppage time when he ran clear from Wayne Routledge's pass and beat Julian Speroni with ease.

It was Newcastle's first league win since December 20 and although it was achieved in the face of an injury crisis - which grew with the premature departure of full-back Jose Enrique - it left the bulk of a crowd of 37,886 biting their fingernails until the final whistle.

In Wednesday night's other clash, goals from Gary Hooper and Grant McCann, two players whose futures at Scunthorpe are unclear, helped the Iron move above Sheffield Wednesday with a 2-0 victory at Glanford Park.

Hooper hit his 10th goal of the campaign early on and McCann finished the job after 77 minutes for his seventh of the season to help Nigel Adkins' men to a maiden home league win over Wednesday.

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